2019 Rocket Mortgage Classic DFS Preview

Chez Reavie was
able to hold off a Sunday charge by Keegan Bradley to secure his first PGA Tour
win in 11 years at the Travelers Championship. This week the PGA Tour is in
Detroit for the first time this decade for a new event on the schedule this
season, The Rocket Mortgage Classic. We will also see Detroit Golf Club as a
PGA venue for the first time in the DFS era of golf.

Detroit Golf Club
is a classic style layout designed by the great Donald Ross. They recently
added six new tee boxes in preparation for this event that will stretch the
course out to around 7,300 yards. A good chunk of that distance will consist of
a 630+ yard par five and a 235+ yard par three so the rest of the course will
likely play on shorter half of courses on the PGA Tour rotation. The majority
of the par fours are shorter and will leave players with a wedge in their hands
on approach. The rough was expected to play around 3.5 inches in length and
grow from there but there have been reports that it actually lower than that.
Another thing to keep in mind is that with this being a first-year event the
PGA Tour will likely not want to push limits with setting up the course so I
wouldn’t expect it to play too difficult. Lastly, one additional note regarding
Donald Ross designs is that we typically see a lot of undulation on and around
the greens so it is important that players manage positioning, including
keeping the ball underneath the hole, and because of that, even with a scoring
fest likely on our hands this week, bogey avoidance will be a stat to consider.

Field strength
takes a noticeable hit this week with the new tour event and many players
taking a week or two off before heading over to Europe to prepare for the Open
Championship. Because of the weak field I don’t think it’s a bad idea to again
reduce the amount of bankroll in play. However, there is still a nice edge to
be found through research of some lesser known names and the DFS sites have
posted some good contests for us this week so so let’s get to the picks. Here
are two targets to build around for your DraftKings cash game/single entry GPP
lineups. Get our best plays to construct the remainder of your lineup by
clicking the link at the bottom of the page.

Upper
Mid-Range – Hideki Matsuyama – $10,200

I will most
likely be starting my main lineup off with Hideki this week as he has continued
his strong iron play gaining six shots on approach vs. a very strong field in
his last start at the US Open. I continue to feature him in these writeups but it
is hard to leave him out as he has gained strokes tee to green in each of his
last 17 Shotlink events highlighted by gaining an average of 3.8 strokes on
approaches over his last 11 starts shows that his iron play is dialed in. When
seeing a new course for the first time I will always lean on approach stats.

Value
– Kevin Streelman – $8,600

While not long
off the tee, Kevin Streelman is another player who has relied on some good
recent ballstriking to post several good finishes over the past couple of
months. He gained strokes on approach in
each of his last six starts that have been good for three top ten finishes in
that time frame. Streelman has historically been a streaky player so I will
take the opportunity to roster him again while he is in good form.